


A Series of Unfortunate Events

by deanlovescastielswormstache



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 22:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/932063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanlovescastielswormstache/pseuds/deanlovescastielswormstache
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James thinks she hates him. Lily thinks he is an arrogant, bullying toerag. How can they see that they have changed if they won't let their guard down and look beyond their preconceived ideas of each other? Well, it starts with one mistake, that leads to another, and another... Can James and Lily realize they were wrong about each other and become the couple they were meant to be?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lily Evans would say it for years to come. It had been an accident. But that was the problem, there always seemed to be accidents around him. First, of course, was that she had smiled at him. An easy mistake, one that was becoming more and more frequent, it would appear. She had been caught off guard by his devilish grin, his tousled hair, his confident attitude and those hazel eyes that had been laughing, as if they were sharing a private joke only the two of them were in on. Lily didn't like James, but in that moment she understood why every girl with two eyes in her head found him attractive. If Lily was honest with herself, James always made her feel dangerously close to falling into the same trap as those other girls who had never gotten over him, which is probably why she hated him. But Lily was not honest with herself when it came to a certain raven-haired boy.

The first, incredibly easy mistake was smiling at him from across the Common Room, which by the way, wasn't really at him, it was at the general atmosphere in the Common Room. It was always this way after Gryffindor won a Quidditch match, which was often enough, thanks to Potter. The Marauders often managed to smuggle alcohol into the Tower and everyone was a lot looser, happier. That was what it was, she reassured herself, Potter had caught her eye as she was thinking of Peter Pettigrew's dancing. That was why she was smiling. Lily Evans did not smile at Potter. She wasn't a complete idiot.

After the damned smile that had not in any way been directed at the git, Potter headed over to the couch where she was sitting. "Alright Evans?" he asked with his trademark dimpled grin. He sat down and handed Lily a drink, something strong no doubt. Lily shrugged and accepted it.

"I'm fine. Nice job on your broomstick by the way Potter." She had meant for it to come off as condescending and frigid, but when the words left her tongue they were teasing, almost flirtatious. Lily blushed, horrified. Another grin spread across his face as he watched her try to contain her blush. Lily blamed it on the atmosphere, the alcohol.

"Hey, anything for my red-headed goddess," he said solemnly, yet in an equally teasing manner. It was obvious that he was making an effort to swallow his laughter. Lily giggled. She hadn't expected Potter to be able to laugh off her advances, even if they were accidental. It seemed that he was under the influence, not to say that she wasn't. The normal everyday Potter would not be able to form a witty response to anything, and he would have already jumped her for her slip of words. Instead, he chuckled along with her.

"I'll drink to that," Lily said, deciding she liked being compared to a goddess, even if it was a joke. She raised her glass to him and downed it-her second mistake that night, if you didn't count engaging in conversation with the enemy as a mistake. Flirtatious conversation, it would appear.

Lily was already a bit tipsy thanks to Marlene, who had said that Lily needed to loosen up and enjoy herself and take a break from studying. She had kept refilling Lily's glass until Lily had lost count of how many drinks she had. Not that Lily hadn't ever been drunk before, she was wary about being drunk around Potter. She knew that he could be arrogant and conceited, but she wasn't worried about him taking advantage of her, she knew that Potter was honorable, even if he was puffed up. It was Lily Evans that she didn't trust. Lily was an honest drunk, prone to blurt out her deepest, darkest secrets and it probably wouldn't be the most brilliant idea ever to get snockered with James Potter, heart breaker and the enemy that she didn't really consider an enemy, much to her own disappointment.

If it wasn't bad enough that she was actually engaging in conversation of a non-hateful variety, congratulating him, laughing, smiling, dare she say enjoying herself, she had to commit her third mistake. The whole accident may have been avoided if she had not committed this third mishap. She had laughed at his jokes, made conversation; she allowed herself to have a good time with James Potter. She let herself go; she let down the wall that she had built against him. She let him see her as she really was, and he reciprocated. They put down their wands, figuratively, and allowed each other to curiously and cautiously get to know their counterpart. Then James had asked her to dance, not that he had given her much of a choice, he had just pulled her on to the dance floor. Not that Lily had resisted much. Damn Marlene. She was going to get a serious talking to tomorrow when Lily regained reality.

And then came the most fatal mistake, the one that blew everything to hell. He touched her and she melted inside. His large hand was on her waist, she could feel the calloused warmth through her blouse. Tingles spread through her body and she got caught up in everything, the warmth in the pit of her belly, the music, their laughter, the look in his eyes as he gazed at her. Their bodies moved closer and closer and Lily could hardly think for all the emotions bubbling under the surface of her skin. Who was this boy, who seemed so ordinary and then blew her away in the next moment? He couldn't be the same boy who had tortured the Slytherins, Snape, who had held himself above everyone else and pranked everyone else in the school. This was James, not Potter. She was seeing someone else; he had let her see who he really was inside. Why did he act like a complete arse around others?

These thoughts were all swirling through her mind, but they all disappeared as their bodies closed the last few inches between them. She let the thoughts go and just allowed herself to feel. Lily looked at James' face. His gaze was intense, his hazel eyes smoldering. Her gaze wandered down to his lips. This boy, though tall and lanky, had the most beautifully shaped lips she had ever seen, the most kissable lips. Her eyes snapped back to his as that thought registered and she knew in that moment that it was going to happen. His face was closer to hers and both his hands were wrapped around her waist now. Lily wondered what his lips would feel like on hers. Her eyes locked with his for a few seconds, thrumming with anticipation, before their lips finally met.

Lily closed her eyes at the burst of sensations. She saw fireworks behind her eyelids, felt sparks on her tongue. She was extremely glad that James had his arms around her because her legs were unsteady from the force of the kiss. She felt adrenaline rush through her and she was all the more aware of how close they were standing and the way his silky hair felt in her hands as she cupped his neck with her hands, sweeping one of her hands through the mane of hair that had been the bane of her existence, even though it had been occupying her mind of late in the most non hateful context.

Lily was unsure how long they had kissed. Maybe it was a few seconds, maybe an hour. All she knew was that in all her dreams and fantasies, she never imagined that kissing James Potter would be this intoxicating. James drew back and tucked a strand of fiery hair behind her ear. Gazing into the eyes of James Potter, she had an epiphany. She realized that this was what she had always been afraid of. James was different. He was no longer Potter. He was James. He hadn't been Potter since fifth year. He had changed. Perhaps Marlene had been right. Why hadn't Lily seen it? Because she knew, she knew as soon as she saw it, the accident would happen, the thing she had been dreading for a while know. She had fallen. Lily Evans was officially in love with James Potter.

And it was so, on a cold October night in the Gryffindor Common Room, during the seventh year of their Hogwarts education that Lily accidentally discovered the real James Potter. And thanks to the series of unfortunate events that led up to their first kiss and consequentially weeks of embarrassment and hiding from each other until their friends locked them in a broom cupboard to figure it out because they couldn't stand the tension anymore, they were able to reconcile their differences and talk about the past and their feelings, even though neither of them wanted to talk about said feelings until the fourth hour in the broom cupboard, which of course came after the first hour of screaming, the second hour of fuming and the third hour of awkward silence. By the fifth hour they had discovered why broom cupboards were so popular among Hogwarts couples. In fact, for the rest of the year, the friends of Lily Evans and James Potter often had to go on several broom cupboard hunting expeditions in order to find their mates. For years afterward, the couple would constantly get jokes about the series of mistakes that had finally gotten them together. They would always look at each other and laugh at how silly they were when they were younger, though they always thought the other was more to blame. In the end, it didn't really matter how many mistakes they had made before they were together, because at least they made it in one piece and they had discovered each other-even if it was an accident.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow my personal blog [here](http://deanlovescastielswormstache.tumblr.com) and my Marauders blog [here](http://snapsandprongsforever.tumblr.com).


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